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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Too Easy To Mess Up Banana Bread

My favorite tea room in Fort Worth is the Rose Garden, located in the Fort Worth Mercantile tucked into the traffic circle over on the west side. It's twinkly, sparkly atmosphere, and I love to lady lunch there with friends. Or I lunch with my littles and just me. My usual order is a combination of everything delicious about tea rooms in general: a small bit of chicken salad, a cup of the soup du jour, a sliver of quiche, fruit, and they throw in two little delicious tea sandwiches that are basically pumpkin bread with cream cheese in the middle.

I used to be able to feed the little guy right off of my plate--we'd just split each thing because it's more than enough food. And then, he discovered the little pumpkin bread sandwiches. He would eat every single last bite and beg for mine! Now he gets his own order of sandwiches.

While I do like pumpkin bread on occasion, I don't like pumpkin flavored stuff in general, and cooking with pumpkin puree kind of grosses me out. (I know, I know--throw me out of the lovers of fall club and all that.)

I do, however, love banana bread (without pecans--I don't like those either. I know, I know.) Jack loves bananas too, and inevitably we have extras going a little past their prime probably once a month. And thus, I came up with another little treat to pack in the little guy's preschool lunch. Tiny banana bread sandwiches, similar to our tea room faves.

I've been using this easy recipe, which is simple enough that I can whip up a fresh loaf of bread in the morning before we leave for school. I use the lesser amount of sugar and 3 bananas. One slice of banana bread, cut in half, spread with a thin layer of cream cheese on one side, then smash the second side on it makes a great little half banana bread sandwich. He loves it, and I feel like it helps fill his belly, better than something like crackers or goldfish.